A baby is always risky to have, so when your child is delivered, you may feel as though a miracle has just occurred. No one is more knowledgeable about this than Isabelle and Abby Carlsen’s parents.
These two stunning daughters were born conjoined at the chest and abdomen more than ten years ago, along with a shared liver, small intestine, and two connected hearts.
When they were born at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, they were miracle babies, and everyone in the world was watching them.
But as physicians prepared to carry out the delicate surgery of separating them, their parents were faced with a difficult choice.
The parents carried a significant amount of anxiety and stress regarding the procedure on their shoulders. At the time the twins were split up, 60% of all such operations resulted in mortality. The delicate procedure, which was carried out on May 12, 2006 by a group of 17 doctors, took 12 hours and had many nerve-wracking moments, especially when it came time to sever the liver they shared.
The girls’ family had to wait a long time, but happily everything went according to plan, and both of them made it through, even though they had to spend the first six months of their lives in hospitals.
You won’t believe the two girls were once joined after ten years because they are doing so well! Isabelle and Abby today hardly recognize themselves in the photograph of them as babies.
“Every night we look in the mirror in our room, and we’re like, how do people get us mixed up?” Abby said, according to CBS News.
According to an interview with their teacher at the time, Tiffany Moos, they are now fun girls who enjoy gymnastics, are friends with everyone, and have excelled academically.
Even though they are both extremely independent, every once in a while they will be walking together and clasp hands.
In the video below, Abby and Isabelle tell their own experience.
